Posted!

Join the Nation's Conversation

Big milestone: U.S. producing more oil than it imports

For the first month in nearly two decades, the U.S. in October extracted more oil from the ground than it imported from abroad, marking an important milestone for a nation seeking to wean itself off foreign oil. (Nov. 13)
AP

Wendy Koch , USA TODAY
11:40 p.m. EST November 13, 2013

The United States still imports 35% of the petroleum it uses, but its oil production is on the rise while its consumption is falling.

Water gushes out of a drilling pipe as it is pulled up to be replaced with a fresh pipe at a hydraulic fracturing site in Midland, Texas, on Sept. 24. The drilling method known as fracking uses huge amounts of high-pressure, chemical-laced water to free oil and natural gas trapped deep in underground rocks.(Photo: Pat Sullivan, AP)

Story Highlights

U.S. oil production, booming since 2008, now exceeds oil consumption

White House credits Obama's fuel-efficiency standards for cutting oil use

Oil industry says the production boom was due to drilling on private lands

The United States tiptoed closer to energy independence last month when — for the first time in nearly two decades — it produced more crude oil than it imported, federal officials said Wednesday.

The nation has been moving toward this milestone, because two trends are converging. Domestic oil production is at a 24-year high while foreign oil imports are at a 17-year low. The result: production exceeded net imports for the first time since February 1995, although the nation still imports 35% of the petroleum it uses.

Production has been booming partly because of hydraulic fracturing or fracking, which extracts oil by blasting water mixed with sand and chemicals underground to break apart shale rock. Meanwhile, consumption has been falling as high gasoline prices have reduced how much people drive and more efficient cars and buildings have also lowered energy use.

The White House sought to take partial credit for this "transformation," noting President Obama's near-doubling of fuel-efficiency standards for new cars and light trucks by model year 2025. Spokesman Jay Carney said this fuel-efficiency standard has lowered both energy use and carbon pollution.

"We do not need to choose between growing the economy and cutting pollution," Carney said, noting that economic output is up while U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are down. Carney said Obama's all-of-the-above energy strategy is promoting electric vehicles and biofuels as well as increased oil production, adding the administration is making more federal lands available for development.

The oil industry said Obama hardly deserves credit. "Domestic oil and natural gas production is only on the rise, thanks to development on state and private lands," the American Petroleum Institute's Kyle Isakower said in a statement. "In areas controlled by the federal government, production has actually fallen on President Obama's watch."

The non-partisan Congressional Research Service reported in March that on federal lands, oil production fell 6% and natural gas production fell 21% from the beginning of 2009 to the end of 2012.

Energy experts welcomed the production-exceeds-consumption milestone. "It's a big deal," said Jim Burkhard, head of oil market research for Denver-based consulting firm IHS, noting U.S. oil production had been falling for nearly 40 years until 2008, when it started climbing. He said high global prices created demand for oil that fracking has been able to fill while Obama's higher fuel-efficiency standards — along with steep gas prices — lowered use.

Some warn the oil boom might not last. "It's essential we continue to cut our oil use via modern, more efficient vehicles," said Daniel Weiss, director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress, a progressive-oriented research group. "We must also grow investments in cleaner, non-oil-based transportation, including electric vehicles and public transit."

The Energy Information Administration, which revealed the milestone in its "Short-Term energy Outlook," also reported that gas prices are falling. It said the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline fell to $3.27 per gallon Monday — from $3.68 July 22. It expects pump prices will average $3.24 per gallon for this year's fourth quarter.